Isolde

From a volunteer who visited with her in July 2014: ”Isolde is really hitting puberty, it’s cute to see how her face starts to change and how tall she has grown this last year. Isolde is becoming a young lady, a wonderful young lady with a very strong but sweet character. Isolde is a good friend as well. She is best friends with Duane, but she has been put in a different group now. Nobody ever puts them together, so that’s what we did this summer. The nurses first wouldn’t let us, but we explained that they are best friends and then it was okay. They hugged for minutes, until Duane was getting weaker and he lay down on the floor again. Isolde tried to get him to hug some more or to play a game through the bars from the playpen, but he didn’t react anymore. Isolde was so disappointed, she tried for minutes to get him back on his feet and she didn’t want to sit down in her wheelchair again. She kept holding on to the bars of the playpen to keep herself on her feet. I had to tell her very strongly that she had to sit down and that she had to go back to her own group. She cried a little bit when I had to leave her again. Seeing her cry made me cry. She just wants to be loved and to give love. She has so much love to give. I wish someone would see what an amazing young woman she is. She is verbal, potty trained and very sweet. She is able to walk short paces, but to be honest, they wouldn’t let us this summer, so I hope she can still do it, because nobody has trained with her. They don’t have PT in her facility anymore, which she received a couple years ago. She needs to get PT. I stretched her legs a couple times those days and I could already see improvement in flexibility. It is amazing what a bit of stretching can do for her, imagine what PT can do for her. She can blossom in a family and I don’t have a doubt about the fact that she will be able to walk if she is given the chance.”

From someone who met her: Isolde is lovely. First I thought she couldn’t speak when I was there in the summer, ’cause it took her about 3 weeks before she would even say ‘thank you.’ But then she started to talk more and more. I started to do walking exercises with her. She could hardly stand on her legs by then. I practiced with her everyday and what I noticed is that she is a fighter. She worked so hard. She worked until she was bathing in sweat and totally tired. She wouldn’t stop before her legs couldn’t hold her anymore. Everyday we could walk further. First just one side of the building and in the end we could easily walk 2 rounds around the building. Though she needs quite some support. After the summer they gave her PT and she was walking way better when I was there in November again. She could walk with one hand then, which was totally impossible for her in the summer. And again she was fighting to learn more, but being inside the building all day would limit her. She is pretty smart too, I played games with her. One of the games was creating a ‘picture’ with little pins, just copying the example. The physical part of the game was the hardest. So we trained to pick up the pins, put them in and get them out. She is so wonderful! She smiles so sweet. She just stole my hard. In the beginning of the summer she had hardly any muscles in her leg and she was extremely skinny, but during the summer she got more muscles from exercising and in November she was doing even better. I’m so proud of this girl. If she will get the chance, she will reach so much, because she will fight for it. She would do so well in a family, because a family can give her the chance that she deserves and I know she will make the most of it.